Marcus Luttrell

Marcus Luttrell (7 November 1975-) was a US Navy SEALs Hospital corpsman first class who was the "lone survivor" of a team of SEALs sent to eliminate Taliban leader Ahmad Shah in Operation Red Wings during the Afghanistan War.

Biography
Marcus Luttrell was born in Houston, Texas in 1975, and he began training for the US Navy SEALs at age 14 with the help of a US Army veteran who lived near his home. He graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1998 with a degree in international business, and he enlisted in the US Navy in March 1999. He graduated from BUD/S class in 2000, and he was deployed to Afghanistan in April 2005 alongside the US Navy SEALs.

Lone Survivor
In June 2005, Luttrell, Michael P. Murphy, Matthew Axelson, and Danny Dietz were sent to take part in "Operation Red Wings", the targeted assassination of Taliban leader Ahmad Shah near Asadabad in Kunar Province. The team intended to abort the mission after being caught by local goatherders, but the locals warned the Taliban, leading to a shootout between the four SEALs and a force of up to 100 Taliban fighters. All of the SEALs were killed except for Luttrell, who was rescued by Pashtun villager Mohammad Gulab, hid at Gulab's house, and later medevaced by American reinforcements alerted by other Pashtun villagers. Luttrell would return to active duty and fight in the Iraq War, and he had his knees blown out and his spine fractured during fighting at Ramadi in 2006; these wounds led to his discharge.

Later life
Luttrell returned to the United States in 2007 and co-authored a bestseller account of his experiences, and he established the Lone Survivor Foundation in 2010 to help American wounded service members and their families. Luttrell endorsed Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry in 2016, but he went on to speak at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump.